Campaign reply - Cut profits — not railway jobs and services

Thank you for your email on raising this important issue about the rail strikes.

 

The Government is doing its utmost to get the unions and the rail industry to agree a way forward. In such discussions, it is always the employer and the unions who need to get together and negotiate. In this case, that is the train operating companies, Network Rail and their union representatives.

 

The Government is introducing reforms to build a sustainable, growing railway, where every rail worker receives a decent annual pay rise. If the reforms are not carried out, the strikes will threaten the very jobs of the people who are striking, because they will not allow the railway to operate properly and attract the revenue from customers back.

 

Addressing your key points, I appreciate your concerns about the profits of rail companies. However, since the start of the pandemic, rail companies have lost a fifth of its passengers and a fifth of its revenue. To tackle this, the Government has invested £16 billion to keep trains running and ensure that no one at Network Rail or DFT-contracted train operating companies was furloughed.

 

While FirstGroup, which owns GWR, did make a large profit this financial year, this was due to their selling of their North American business which enabled the company to reduce their debts, make a £336m contribution to support UK pension schemes and return some of the sale proceeds to shareholders. For more information about FirstGroup’s finances, please see below:

 

https://www.firstgroupplc.com/~/media/Files/F/Firstgroup-Plc/reports-and-presentations/press-release/results-for-year-2021-22-press-release.pdf

 

As FirstGroup is a company operating within the private sector, the Government cannot have a role in disputes over profits and pay, it is always the employer and the unions who need to negotiate this.

With regards to your concerns over the safety and security of the railway, the Government is working on reforms that will help safeguard workers and passengers from harm. This includes improving automation, such as using trains to check the condition of the lines which can take 70,000 images per minute and by drones that can look at the lines from overhead, rather than having workers walk down the track.

 

The Government wants the unions to work with the industry and the Government to bring a much brighter future to our railways, and that means building an agile and flexible workforce. Strikes should be the last resort, not the first. They will stop customers choosing rail, they will put jobs at risk, they will cause misery across the country, they will hit businesses that are trying to recover from COVID, and they will hurt railway workers themselves. This is about ensuring we have a railway that is fit for the post-COVID world.

 

The Government is committed to introducing levels of investment in railways that have not been seen for decades. There has been £96 billion for the integrated rail review in the north and the midlands; £35 billion of ongoing improvements, maintenance and upgrades; and the announcement of Meir station as part of the ‘Restoring your Railway’ bid, reversing the Beeching cuts.

 

For the reasons above, I do not condone the rail strikes or a compulsory pay rise for workers. I sincerely hope that the disputes can be resolved between the companies and its staff, but this requires both groups coming to the table to negotiate, rather than strike.